Good Vibrations
by RisemboolRanger
Summary: It's believed that some people were chosen to become meta humans. But only one of them chose it for themselves. Merry's determined to get to the root of S.T.A.R. Labs and she doesn't care who she has to take down to get there. Or at least that was what she used to think. Cisco/OC
1. Planting The Seed

"Are you sure about this?"

Merry nodded firmly. "I've gone this far. I'm going to get into those labs."

"Alright. Then watch your head," was the light response.

Matthew Myrrh drew his 9mm Glock and fired twice at his niece standing before him. He was a superb shot. The two bullets hit the wall of the alleyway behind her, missing each side of her face by mere inches and burying themselves deep into the brickwork. Merry opened her eyes and took a breath. Though she had complete faith in her uncle's marksmanship, it was quite another thing to stare down the barrel of a gun without reaction.

"Why'd you close your eyes?" Matt asked, lowering the gun slightly. "What if something had gone wrong? You could have stopped those bullets if you'd wanted to, but not with your eyes closed."

"It's called having a little faith," said Merry, untroubled by the idea.

"A little faith won't do anything for you if you're dead."

"It's nice to know you have as much confidence as I do."

This kind of banter was usual between the two of them. 'Uncle Matty', as he'd been when she was a kid, was Merry's favourite person in the whole world and it had been just the two of them in it together for a long time now. Merry was finally in a place where she could start trying to avenge some of the reasoning behind their situation. It was one of the few things that kept her moving forwards.

"Heads up..." Matt had time to warn her before two police officers suddenly charged onto the scene, guns raised.

"Drop your weapon and raise your hands in the air!" the first cop - an African American - ordered, instantly training his gun on Matt, whose own firearm was still pointed at Merry.

Matt released the gun with one hand and half raised his free hand into the air in an attempt at a peaceful gesture. "I can't..."

"We will be forced to shoot you," the first cop warned.

"Okay, okay... My name's Matthew Myrrh." Matt spoke calmly, trying not to spook either of them. "I only shot in self defence. This is going to sound crazy, but there's somebody else around here somewhere - a man named Bernie Lowman. Only you can't see him..."

The two cops glanced at each other. "That... doesn't actually sound too crazy..." said the first cop. "So where is he now?"

"Well, I don't know, do I?" Matt couldn't stop a slip of sarcasm.

The second cop - a handsome man with neat stubble and dirty blonde hair - looked uncertainly to his partner. "Should we call for back-up?"

The first cop seemed to deliberate for a few moments before addressing Matt again. "Is anyone in danger from this man?"

"_Yes_," Matt replied impatiently. "This mad man's after my niece!"

On cue, Merry made to step forward. "Matt, maybe you should put your gun down and..."

"Don't move, Merry!" Matt ordered. "We don't know where he is or what he might do. Just stay put!"

The African American looked between the two civilians before his gaze rested on Merry. "Do as he says," he decided. "I'll call for back-up." He pulled out a cell phone, but the person he rang wasn't another cop. "This is Detective Joe West. Requesting back-up on Third behind the old Ostreicher building. Unidentified subject; may be armed and dangerous."

The response from the other end of the line sounded confused. "Err, Joe? Are you sure you've called the right number?"

But Joe resolutely recited the words again before hanging up. "I repeat: unidentified subject; may be armed and dangerous."

Merry shot Matt an uncertain look. From what they knew of Joe West, they'd been hoping he'd call in a _different_ kind of back-up. They didn't really need anymore cops involved. He stared back at her, unable to convey the message without saying anything. But luckily for the two of them, they had their own unique way of being able to send each other hints.

A window from the storey above them suddenly shattered, sending a cascade of glass showering down over Merry. She shrieked and instinctively threw her arms up to shield herself from the worst of it. Matt whirled around to where the destruction had come from and fired another bullet into the vicinity of the fire escape closest to the broken window.

"Stop!"

"Hold your fire!"

Matt glared at the sound of the cops' protests, still not lowering his gun. "He's after my niece! What do you want me to do? Wait for your so called back-up?"

That was exactly what Joe wanted him to do. How were they supposed to fight against an invisible foe? They weren't equipped for this. But his 'back-up' certainly was. Joe just had to rely on the tech team's smarts behind said back-up to get his location quick enough from his phone. Once that critical information was available, then he knew that speed wouldn't be a problem.

Another window burst into pieces on the opposite side of the alley, narrowly missing Joe's partner, who shielded his eyes in the same way that Merry had. Things were getting dangerous. Joe knew how difficult S.T.A.R. Labs' so-called meta humans could be to fight, but it was even harder when you couldn't tell where your perp was.

"Come on, Barry, come on," he muttered under his breath, his eyes never resting as he constantly searched the area for any clue as to the location of their foe.

Thankfully, his faith was well-founded. A blur of red suddenly appeared in the alleyway at an impossible speed, braking so hard that it created a cloud of smoke. Once stationary, they could see that the blur was in fact a man. A man in a red suit with tiny lightning bolts on either side of his mask and emblazoned across his chest. Known for a short time by the public as the Streak and now as the Flash - the mysterious, inhumanly fast saviour of Central City.

Though to Joe, he was Barry Allen. The nerdy, young forensic scientist who was best friends with his daughter and who he'd raised practically as his son for the last fourteen years. A boy who just happened to have been struck by lightning.

And then to Merry and Matt, he was something else entirely. He was a way in.

Barry assessed the situation in all of a nanosecond. Joe and his partner, Eddie, had both discharged their weapons. Never a good sign. A girl with short, blonde hair who couldn't have been any older than him was standing slightly away from them, tiny bloody scratches decorating her arms and face. Victim. Facing her was a man with untidy hair of a similar colour and a dark lick of stubble across his chin. He also bore a gun and it was aimed in the direction of the girl. Bad guy.

Merry had no chance of being quick enough to react as he charged towards Matt. Thankfully, all he did was zoom past, snatching the gun from his hands. Even though Matt had been prepared for it to happen, it was still weird having something in your hands one moment and then it being gone the next. Barry grinded to a halt and turned to face Matt again, establishing whether he would still be a threat unarmed. It was in that short moment that Merry hit him.

Barry felt like he'd been hit with a sledgehammer. The force from the impact threw him off his feet and literally head over heels until he rolled to a stop several metres away. He staggered quickly to his feet, unsure what had just happened. It was extremely difficult to catch him off guard - after all, he could move quicker than most people could even think. The truth was that nobody had been close enough to have hit him. It was almost like he'd been hit by, well... nothing.

Joe and Eddie seemed as confused by the blow as he was. But the two civilians, that was a different matter. The man looked as calm as anything. The girl, however, looked scared. She was holding both hands out in front of her - almost like she'd just attempted to push something out of her way. For someone smart like Barry, it wasn't difficult to put the twos together. _Meta human_, his mind screamed.

"Did you just do that?" he asked the girl incredulously, using his power to vibrate his vocal chords at a high speed to disguise his voice.

"I... I'm sorry!" she stammered. "But he's my uncle - you were going to hurt him! He was just protecting me!"

Barry looked towards Joe for confirmation, who nodded reassuringly. So the man wasn't a threat? Barry didn't understand. Why had Joe called him here so urgently if there was no danger? As soon as he'd received the bizarre call, he'd gotten Cisco to ping Joe's phone and triangulate the location from where the call had been made, assuming it must have been code. But the only meta human here didn't seem to be a threat either. Had Joe called him in just because she _was_ a meta human?

"Our perp's invisible," Matt said helpfully, registering Barry's silence. He was pleased. Joe had made the call they'd been hoping for after all. "So I'd watch your step, because you won't see him coming."

Invisible? So there was a _second_ meta human in the area. That explained everything. Joe hadn't called just because there was a meta human around - he'd called because he was apparently in the middle of some meta human fight. Barry was sure that Cisco would have been losing it right about now if he'd known what was going on. A meta human who could turn invisible? How was he supposed to fight someone who he couldn't see?

But apparently, he didn't have to worry about the fighting part. Eddie suddenly staggered as if he'd been pushed aside, then a trashcan at the far end of the alleyway was sent careering out of the way, spilling rubbish everywhere. It looked like their invisible foe had decided to make a break for it. For once, since Barry had gotten his powers, he'd taken too long.

"I wouldn't worry now, mate," Matt added cheerfully. "Looks like he thought better of you and took off."

Barry glanced between the two civilians and the two cops. The latter looked just as confused as he felt. Eddie in particular. "What just happened?" he asked uncertainly, lowering his gun and rubbing his shoulder where he'd been shoved.

Barry hesitated. He was desperate to know more about what he'd just ran into. Joe might have been in the know about meta humans, but Eddie wasn't. They couldn't talk here. They needed to be somewhere private. He looked to the girl and said one word, "Sorry."

Before Merry could even process what he'd said, she found herself suddenly airborne - aloft in the red-suited man's arms and travelling at what felt like mach one speed. There was no time for her to react. All she managed was a short gasp and then, abruptly, they were stationary again. The man set her down and her feet shakily touched grass. As Merry looked around, she realised they were now standing in the middle of an open field. Where exactly, she had no idea. She was aware of one thing though: they were alone.

"My uncle!" she protested. "You can't leave him there - what if that thing comes back!"

Barry felt torn. He hadn't liked that the guy was armed when he clearly wasn't a cop, but the girl seemed distressed about him. Plus she'd claimed that he had only been protecting her. It was enough to cement his decision. At least he was in possession of the guy's gun now, either way.

"Stay put," he told Merry, before running back to fetch Matt.

Merry felt like he'd barely been gone two seconds and then he was back again, Matt at his side. Matt didn't look like he'd handled the super speedy travel as well as she had. His face was pale and his expression decidedly blank. Merry rushed over to him. "Matt!"

Matt caught her arm unsteadily, attempting to be careful of the many scratches littering her skin. "Merry! Are you alright?"

Merry hastily dismissed his concern. "I'm fine."

Matt turned back to Barry. "Thank you," he told him sincerely. "We were in a real quandary until you showed up."

"I really don't think I did anything to help," Barry admitted, not bothering to disguise his voice anymore. That had been more for Eddie's benefit. These civilians didn't know him.

"He must have just felt outnumbered."

"So what exactly happened?" Barry questioned. "Who was he? And who are you?"

"My name's Matthew Myrrh," Matt introduced himself. "I'm a bounty hunter. And this is my niece, Merry. Our invisible man is called Bernie Lowman. He caught onto us a few cities back. Learnt about Merry's abilities and has been trying to get hold of her ever since."

"What for?"

"To convert her over to his way of thinking," Matt explained. "He thinks having powers gives him the right to rob banks and such. Apparently, now he wants an accomplice."

"But I don't even know that much about my powers yet," Merry added. "I definitely don't want to use them for bad though."

Barry was fascinated. This girl was exactly the kind of meta human they'd been looking for. So far, they'd only come across one meta human who hadn't turned against the rest of society - a girl named Bette San Souci, who'd had the ability to turn anything she touched into bombs. But good or not, her power had been highly dangerous and it had ended up costing Bette her own life. Merry, however... Her powers too seemed like they could be dangerous, but they also appeared to be much more easily controlled.

"So... you have powers too?" Merry continued.

Barry nodded. "I'm a meta human. Just like you."

"Meta human?" Merry repeated curiously.

"That's what we call them... Well, _us_," said Barry.

"We?"

Barry grinned. "Let's just say I know some people who'll be able to explain it a lot better than me."

"Wait, does that mean they might know where my powers came from?" Merry asked, suddenly excited. "Or yours? Or Bernie Lowman's? Can I meet them?"

"Sure. I'll take you to them right now," Barry beamed, just as excited. It was so refreshing to come across another _good_ meta human.

"Don't suppose we could take the bus this time, eh, mate?" Matt suggested uneasily.

Barry grinned again. "Sorry, I don't have my bus pass with me."

XXX

Barry transferred both of them to the front of a cordoned off building which, judging by the surroundings, appeared to be right on the outskirts of town. He took Matt first this time, giving him the extra few seconds to compose himself whilst he brought Merry over too. Merry stared up at the rather plain building, feeling her stomach twist in anticipation. She knew exactly what this place was.

"You not got a lower setting there, lad?" Matt asked ruefully, slapping his cheeks to try and distract himself from the nausea.

Barry laughed. "Sorry, one speed only."

They both followed the scarlet speedster inside, who conceded to walking at a normal pace. He led them through to a wide, open room that was lined with computers and large screens. Two others were already inside - a boy sitting at one of the computers and a girl stood inspecting one of the charts on the wall. Merry judged them to be in their early twenties. They both looked surprised to have visitors.

The girl was so surprised that she hastily tore down the entire chart that she'd been looking at and quickly folded it into four. "Oh! We weren't expecting you to bring company..."

"It's okay, Caitlin," Barry reassured her. "This is Merry - she's a meta human."

All eyes turned to Merry, who put on her best uncomfortable look and shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Um, hi."

"Finally, another _girl_ meta human!" exclaimed the guy, grinning widely.

Merry wasn't quite sure what to make of that. She shot Barry a questioning look, who laughed. "That's Cisco. He's part of the team here."

"He doesn't get out much," the girl added.

"Excuse me. I get out plenty."

"And that's Caitlin," said Barry, indicating the girl. "She also works here."

Merry looked between the two employees, then back to Barry. "These are the people you were telling me about?"

Barry nodded. Caitlin, however, still looked confused. "But you haven't said anything to us about _her_..."

"She's part of why Joe called me," Barry explained. "She was being followed by another meta human. One who can turn invisible."

"_Awesome_!" Cisco exclaimed. "He could be the _Phantom_! Oh, yeah, nailed it first try!"

Merry raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Phantom?"

"Oh, here we give all the meta humans cool codenames," said Cisco, nodding to himself. "It makes it more fun."

"And the rest of us pretend it doesn't happen," concluded Caitlin, rolling her eyes.

Merry was quite amused by the idea. She kept her eyes on Cisco. "So what would you call me?"

Cisco sat back in his chair. "That depends. What can you do?"

Merry couldn't resist a smirk. "I can do a lot of things..."

Cisco's grin widened, but Caitlin seemed a little alarmed by the turn the conversation seemed to be taking. She hurriedly cut in before Cisco could make one of his usually cringing responses. "So what exactly happened to this other meta human?"

"He took off," Matt chimed in. "I'm guessing he wasn't a fan of the competition when he saw your boy here..."

"Barry," Barry added helpfully.

"Dude. You kinda suck with the whole secret identity thing," Cisco commented.

"What? They're clearly on the same side as us," Barry pointed out. "We need all the good meta humans we can get."

"You keep saying meta humans..." said Merry. "But what exactly do you mean by that? Who came up with it? Does it just mean someone with powers? How did you even get your powers in the first place? How did _I_ get them?"

"That's why I brought you here," Barry smiled. "Cisco and Caitlin were the ones who helped me to understand more about superpowers and meta humans. They know a lot more about it than me."

"Though there is someone who knows even more than we do," Caitlin added.

"And that would be me," came a new voice.

Merry and Matt both turned to see that somebody else had entered the room - a middle-aged man in a wheelchair. Merry knew instantly who it was and it took every ounce of self control to contain her emotions and keep her expression perfectly blank. If she wanted this to work, then she couldn't afford to give anything away. To everyone else, this would be the first time she'd even heard anything of _the_ Dr. Wells.

"My name's Harrison Wells," he introduced when Merry said nothing, simply giving him a perfectly controlled curious expression. "I run S.T.A.R. Labs and I believe that I can tell you everything you want to know about meta humans."

"Then please tell me everything," Merry practically begged. "I _need_ to know everything."

Dr. Wells nodded knowingly, his gaze then sliding over to Matt. "And are you a meta human too?"

Matt shook his head. "No, I'm just your everyday bounty hunter."

"Then I wouldn't go as far as to say that this information is classified, but there are very few people who know about what we do here."

"Say no more, mate. I'll wait outside if you like," Matt offered, catching on quickly.

"What? But he's with me," Merry protested. "He's my uncle. He's not going to say anything to anyone."

Matt put his hands on both of her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "Merry, how long have you wanted to understand where your powers came from? Now you finally have someone willing to give you that information. I can wait outside for twenty minutes. It's no big deal."

Merry made a show of biting her lip before eventually conceding. "Alright."

"Atta girl."

"I appreciate the cooperation," Dr. Wells told Matt gratefully. "Barry, why don't you show him out?"

"Regular speed though, thank you," Matt insisted, pointing a finger at Barry. Barry just laughed and agreed to lead him outside. The others could distantly hear Matt ask, "Can I have my gun back, by the way?"

"So... Merry, was it?" Dr. Wells enquired. "I can tell you everything I know about the origins of most meta humans that we've come across so far, but in order to fully understand the extent of your abilities, we will likely need to run some experiments and put you through testing. How do you feel about that?"

Merry was nodding before he'd even finished the question. "I don't mind - I'll do anything. I just want to _know_..."

"Well, then in that case, we welcome you to S.T.A.R. Labs," Dr. Wells smiled. "Hopefully, we can help you find the answers to all of your questions. Now, do you remember where you were when you first discovered your powers?"

A little over half an hour later, Merry was leaving S.T.A.R. Labs. Though she moved confidently, her legs were shaking and her heart was pounding. She'd finally done it. They'd come so far since leaving the UK and after so many years, she'd finally found her way into S.T.A.R. Labs. Of course, her battle wasn't over just yet. Now she had to weave her way in even deeper. And to do that, she needed to gain the trust of everybody else involved.

The girl, Caitlin, had seemed a little wary of her. But they were of similar age and Merry was sure that she could win her over in time. Barry, their fellow meta human, seemed friendly and fairly eager to please. He'd certainly been quick enough to trust them with his real name. Merry didn't think she'd have any trouble from him. The obviously geeky Cisco - plain as day from the long, untidy hair and the Super Mario Bros. t-shirt - hadn't stopped staring at her the entire time she'd been inside. She didn't think he'd noticed anything other than the fact that she was female. She reckoned she could have him wrapped around her little finger in no time. Boys were always so much easier to influence.

Apart from Dr. Wells, of course. But then Merry had already learnt years ago that he was the big cheese. He was the one she'd really have to work at to gain his trust. Because he was also the one she wanted to destroy. She'd waited this long. She was certain she could do it.

Matt was waiting outside for her, smoking a cigarette. He blew out a long trail of smoke and glanced over when he noticed her presence. "Well?"

Merry smiled. It wasn't necessarily a friendly smile. "I'm in."


	2. Testing The Waters

"So... How about a grand tour?"

From her initial judgements of the people at S.T.A.R. Labs, Merry had singled Cisco out as the one who'd be easiest to win over. She knew that whatever your goal was, when you had someone else on your side, it was easier to start converting others too. It was clear right from the start that Cisco was mostly interested in the fact that she was a girl, so Merry intended to use that to her advantage and wasted no time getting into it.

Like she'd expected, Cisco was certainly happy to help out and had jumped straight into giving her a tour around the building, as she'd requested. They walked around the labs, a couple of storage offices, several smaller rooms housing equipment that Cisco had built specifically to train and test various aspects of Barry's abilities - like a treadmill that could withstand his impossibly high speeds and a remote-controlled robotic dummy to practice fighting against.

Though putting on a simply mildly interested outlook, Merry in fact paid close attention to every little detail. Who knew what knowledge might help aid her in her conquest? The different machines likely wouldn't be of much use to her - Cisco's creations would probably be safe from her plans - but the labs... Now the work being produced from those could prove very useful indeed.

However, nothing she saw was quite as interesting as the last place that Cisco showed her.

"And this is the Pipeline," he announced, having led her down a long corridor that split off into sections where each seemed to house a high-tech cell. "This used to be the particle accelerator before it blew, but we re-vamped it into a specialised prison for meta humans."

"A prison. Wow..." Merry breathed, looking around in fascination. Of all the things she'd expected to find within S.T.A.R. Labs, a meta human prison wasn't one of them. "How many inmates have you got down here?"

"Just these two," said Cisco. "We've also had one fatality and one, err, escapee..." Merry's eyebrows rose incredulously at that one. "Hey, we're still learning ourselves here."

So one meta human had escaped and one had even died here? Now that was definitely interesting information. Merry hastily arranged her expression into an innocent one, not wanting to give away that Cisco had just presented her with valuable knowledge. "So what can these guys do?"

Cisco was more than happy to go into detail. "Well, this is Kyle Nimbus..." The man in the first cell seemed enraged by the idea of being watched like something at the zoo and slammed his fists against the glass separating him from them, his form alternating as it flickered weirdly from his body to an ethereal substance. "As you can see, he can transform himself into a poisonous gas."

"Nasty," said Merry, staring through the glass in amazement. She then moved along to the cell in the next section of the corridor. The man inside this one was sitting broodingly on the floor, though when he noticed Merry watching, he stared up at her. His eyes seemed almost like they were flashing. "What about this guy? Why do his eyes look like an old TV set that needs hitting?"

"His name's Roy Bivolo," said Cisco, sidling up beside her. "He can control people through the colour augmentation of his eyes - making them lose all sense of anything besides rage."

"Err, then shouldn't we avoid direct eye contact with him or something?" Merry asked uncertainly.

Cisco shook his head. "See how he looks black and white? This glass removes all colour pigmentation. Kinda like a lens on an old camera. He's harmless in there."

"Huh."

Merry wasn't sure what else to say to that. From the information she and Matt had gathered over the last several months, they'd known that Barry had been working with the people at S.T.A.R. Labs in his crusade as a masked hero and that he'd gone up against several others with powers of their own during that time. One thing they hadn't been able to discern was what exactly had happened to those other meta humans after they'd been brought down.

They'd had suspicions that the obtained meta humans may have been hidden away inside S.T.A.R. Labs somewhere, but Merry couldn't have quite anticipated the prison that stood around her. Each meta human had a veritable power that needed containing in the right way. This prison had been incredibly well thought out in order to have every cell specifically modified to its occupant. Merry couldn't deny that it was impressive.

She said as much out loud. "This place is really something else. People like this couldn't just be contained in any normal prison. Who even designed these cells?"

"I did," said Cisco proudly. "With the help of Dr. Wells, of course. I do most of the engineering around here."

Merry was definitely impressed by that. Cisco couldn't have been any older than twenty-three or twenty-four, yet he'd managed to concoct a facility perfectly adapted to contain dangerous meta humans. Not to mention all the other inventions of his that she'd seen around S.T.A.R. Labs so far. Merry had never been one to really put her true thoughts out there - opinions could be valuable things - but on this occasion, it might just work to her advantage.

"That's really impressive. I mean, _really_ impressive..." Merry gushed enthusiastically, layering her voice with a much huskier tone - something she'd practiced so often that shifting into it was as easy as flicking on a light switch. "How old are you exactly?"

"Err, twenty-two?" Cisco had noticed the change of mood and he didn't seem quite sure how to react to it.

"So only three years younger than me..." Merry pondered the idea deliberately, like it was a promising possibility. "And you're clearly already so much smarter, so much more successful... You must be an absolute prize to Dr. Wells."

"Well, we're all equal. He said there's no favourites here," said Cisco fairly, though he seemed to quite like this new suggestive praise. A more confident edge entered his voice as he grinned, "But he always says that he only takes people on at S.T.A.R. Labs who he sees something special in."

"I'll bet," Merry agreed readily, inching just that tiny bit closer to him so that it was barely even noticeable. "It's no wonder he saw something special in you, especially if you can create all of this. You must be really good with..."

"Is everything okay down here?" came a new voice.

Damn. She'd had a really good rapport going there. Merry practically frowned as she turned to see who had cut in. Had somebody seriously just interrupted her 'good with your hands' line? That would have been perfect - complimenting hands always suggested a multitude of things.

Though when she realised it was Dr. Wells, she quickly put on her best poker face. Had he followed them down here? He was sat in the middle of the Pipeline, watching them, his silhouette shadowed by the dark lighting. For someone in a wheelchair, he cut a very intimidating figure. _He knows_, a voice hissed at the back of Merry's head, which she swiftly dismissed. How could he possibly know? Besides a little flirting, she hadn't actually done anything. Not yet anyway.

"Oh, I was just showing Merry around," Cisco replied quickly. He seemed a little flustered, though that was probably from her not-so-subtle advance. Well, at least she'd gotten her intention across, even if she hadn't been able to complete her coup de gracé of a line.

Dr. Wells looked between the two of them, before settling on Merry. His face gave nothing away. "I'd prefer it if you weren't alone down here."

Cisco seemed confused by that. "But she's not alone."

Merry tried to concentrate on meeting Dr. Wells's gaze politely, not defiantly. _He knows_, the voice whispered again. This time, it was harder to quash. Though Cisco was right, Merry had a feeling that what Dr. Wells meant was that he didn't trust her with him. The young engineer was obviously easily swayed by girls. If Merry had picked up on that so quickly, then of course Dr. Wells would have done too. Did he know exactly what she was up to?

Dr. Wells finally switched his gaze over to Cisco. It took all of Merry's willpower to keep her expression blank. He definitely didn't trust her. "I just meant that we should be careful," he said pleasantly. "We've already had our security breached before. Maybe it's best if from now on, anyone visiting the Pipeline is accompanied by either Barry or myself. Just as a precaution."

"Okay," Cisco agreed with a nonplussed shrug. "I guess it's better to be safe than sorry."

Well, at least _he_ had no suspicions about anything, Merry thought. She'd already known that Dr. Wells would be the most difficult to win over. She should have expected something like this. From the information that she and Matt had already gathered, they'd suspected that the intentions of Dr. Wells weren't always what they seemed. It made sense that, in turn, he'd be suspicious of strangers. She'd just have to be very careful about how she played this out. "Sounds smart to me," she agreed innocently.

Dr. Wells eyed her carefully, but his pleasant expression never wavered. "Then we're all in agreement."

His tone signalled that the subject was closed, so they followed him back up to the Cortex - the main room that the team tended to operate from. As they left the Pipeline, Cisco developed a sudden eagerness for them to move on. "Now it's your turn for show and tell," he told Merry. "We need to see some of _your_ power."

In the midst of the lowdown she'd received from them yesterday on what had happened with the particle accelerator and what they now did at S.T.A.R. Labs to deal with the aftermath of the meta humans that they'd unintentionally created, Merry had in turn explained a little about the abilities that she'd gained and what she could do with them. She reiterated as much. "I already told you guys yesterday about my power."

"Yeah, but seeing is believing," Cisco insisted; a statement he then swiftly retracted. "Well, actually it's not - you can believe anything when you see what we already have - but seeing is definitely more awesome."

Merry couldn't help but laugh. "Alright, we can do a demonstration." She looked around the Cortex. "Err... Though maybe somewhere with not so many breakable things?"

Cisco mirrored her movement, scoping out the room too. There were two rows of computers and laptops, glass panels separating the smaller labs and operations rooms, a trolley with some of Caitlin's medical equipment, Barry's back-up suit displayed on a stand in the corner... Plenty of breakable things. Plenty of expensive things.

He was hasty to agree with her suggestion. "Yeah, if anything happens to my suit, then I won't be happy."

Merry glanced over at the red suit in question and raised her eyebrows. "_Your_ suit?"

"_Our_ suit," Barry piped up from the corner with a grin. "We have joint custody apparently."

For somewhere more spacious, Dr. Wells suggested heading down onto an old nearby air strip that they often used to test Barry's abilities. Merry found she was actually a little nervous when all four of them accompanied her outside to watch. Matt was the only one who'd really seen her use her powers before. She wasn't used to having a whole audience.

Barry had explained to her on the drive over in the mobile unit that they'd only ever come across one other good meta human before, who had apparently been killed in action not long after. It must have been a big deal for them to have another meta human they could actually interact with and learn from peaceably, rather than having to fight them and then stick them in the Pipeline. It was the kind of situation that Merry had been hoping for. They'd _want_ her to stick around. She wouldn't need to keep finding ways back in.

Dr. Wells instructed his team to set up as they normally would have done for any of their past testing processes - the only difference he specified was to stack the empty crates that had been inside the back of the mobile unit into various towers on the strip. With Barry helping, the task didn't take long at all. They'd soon erected a long plastic table with several chairs and an awning that overlooked it from the side of the van.

Cisco had made to set his laptop down on the table, but Dr. Wells had cautioned him on that one. "No breakables, remember?"

"Oh, right." Cisco conceded to keeping the laptop protectively in his arms.

Nobody deigned to use the chairs that had been set up. Instead, the S.T.A.R. Labs team stood parallel to the front of the van. Merry could only assume that meant that the chairs were part of her props. "So none of this stuff's expensive?" she double checked.

Dr. Wells shook his head. "Feel free to utilise whatever you like. Except for the van and ourselves, of course."

Merry nodded, taking that as her cue to start and swept a hand out in front of her. The movement sent one of the chairs tumbling aside. She turned and repeated the gesture, obliterating one of the towers of crates. She then thrust her hand outwards and another tower toppled backwards, taking out the next two behind it with a domino effect.

She moved to face one end of the plastic table and repeated the pushing motion with more force, this time using both hands. The table careered away across the air strip, flipping over as one of the legs caught on an indent in the ground. It came to rest thirty feet away.

Cisco was the first to break the silence. "That. Was. _Awesome_."

When Merry turned back towards them, she could see that he wasn't the only one who looked impressed. They all did. She couldn't resist a smile. "Thanks."

Dr. Wells appeared to be deep in thought. "You seem to control objects with a pushing effect. Is that a conscious choice? Can you pull objects towards you as well?"

Merry shook her head. "No. I've tried, but it only seems to work with pushing things away."

"Interesting. So there are limits..."

"How big of an object could you move?" Barry asked interestedly.

"Yeah, could you move the van?" Cisco suggested. For the benefit of Dr. Wells, he then added hastily, "Not to send it flying or anything like you did with the table. I just meant to give it a little push."

"Err, I dunno. I've never tried to push anything that big," said Merry uncertainly. She looked to Dr. Wells for permission, as he'd previously said not to use the van, but now he nodded for her to proceed. "But I guess I can give it a go..."

She chose to try from the back of the van, rather than to risk shattering the windscreen. Her audience followed interestedly. She stopped a few feet away and sized up her target. It really was a lot bigger than anything she'd tried moving before, but now that the idea had been suggested, she found herself just as curious to find out. Aiming for the centre of the hatch, she thrust both hands outwards with more power than she usually used. A large dent caved itself into the metal with a loud crunch that made everyone jump, but the van didn't move an inch.

It wasn't quite what Merry had expected to happen. Staring at the damage, she gingerly lowered her hands. "Err, sorry!" she apologised. "That wasn't exactly what I meant to do..."

"It's alright. You have to be prepared to accept mishaps when conducting experiments," Dr. Wells assured. "Besides, dents can be popped back out. It looks like your power is concentrated to a central point, rather than extending outwards to control the entirety of what you're trying to move. Though there's a chance that with practice and training, you could learn to expand that which acts as your central point."

"Huh." Merry stared at her hands. She'd come here with her own goals in mind, prepared to offer herself up to anything that was asked of her - experiments, testing - in order to secure herself a place at S.T.A.R. Labs. She hadn't really considered the possibility that the people here could actually teach her something new and interesting about her abilities.

Her gesture had Barry looking at her hands too. "Hey..." he said slowly. "What happened to all the scratches on your arms?"

Yesterday, Merry's hands, arms and even some of her face had been littered with tiny cuts from the window that had shattered over her head. Today, however, her skin was as smooth as if nothing had ever happened. That wasn't actually a surprise to Merry - in fact, it had happened so often that she barely paid any mind to smaller injuries now, knowing they'd soon disappear - but she'd hoped to have kept that one a secret for a little while longer. Ah well, nothing she could do about it now.

"Oh. Yeah... I guess you could say I heal pretty fast," she said indifferently, trying not to sound like she'd purposely hidden that particular ability.

Thankfully, nobody seemed suspicious of it, though they were all very curious. "That's still unnaturally fast," Caitlin commented, who had insisted on treating some of the slightly deeper lacerations for her yesterday whilst Dr. Wells had been explaining more about S.T.A.R. Labs. "The scratches you had weren't serious, but they should have still taken several days to heal completely. Barry heals very quickly too - he once healed a broken arm in three hours! - but then that's due to his hyper metabolism. Has this only happened since you got your powers or has it ever happened before then?"

"No, only after I got my powers."

"That's interesting," Dr. Wells mused. "As Caitlin pointed out, Barry's healing works in correlation with his abilities. It seems strange that your body works in a similar way."

"Oh, I wouldn't say it's _that_ fast," Merry added. "Little scratches like what I had still take a few hours to heal."

"Have you ever healed anything bigger than that? More serious lacerations or broken bones?" Dr. Wells continued interestedly.

Merry shook her head. "I've never broken anything before." She then hesitated before confessing, "I'm not sure if I actually _can_..."

"What do you mean?" asked Caitlin.

"Well... A while back, I kinda fell off the roof of a building," Merry explained, skewing the truth slightly. In the real version, 'fell' had been 'jumped'. It had all been part of her own testing process. "I didn't have chance to prepare myself for the landing and I ended up hitting the ground feet first. I should have shattered several bones, but my body somehow absorbed the impact. My uncle reckons it has something to do with how flexible I've become."

"When you say 'become', you mean since the incident where you gained your powers," Dr. Wells affirmed, making it more of a statement than a question.

Merry nodded. "It wasn't something I could ever do before."

"How flexible are we talking?" asked Cisco, his eyebrows curving dramatically upwards.

Merry could only imagine what he was thinking and had to stifle a smile. She cast her gaze around and pointed to the fallen towers of crates. "I could fit inside one of those, easy."

Cisco's eyebrows practically disappeared under his hairline. The crates could barely have been much more than a square foot deep. He opened his mouth to comment - most likely to ask for a demonstration - but Dr. Wells cut across him. "And you definitely never had any signs of being able to do anything like this before?"

Merry actually laughed genuinely at the idea. "I couldn't even stand and touch my toes without bending my knees. The most I ever had was double-jointed thumbs."

"Then it sounds like your body has become incredibly versatile. Flexibility would indeed work to absorb the shock from damage," said Dr. Wells. "And from the sounds of it, whatever damage you _do_ take, your body seems to have the capacity to heal it rapidly anyway. Not as quickly as Barry's, as you say, but certainly more than the average person. I'd be curious to see just what your system could withstand."

"Um, I'm still not really sure myself how well my healing works," Merry said uncertainly.

"Oh, don't worry. We'd do a lot more research before we even thought about properly testing that," Dr. Wells reassured her. "In the meantime, we should head back to S.T.A.R. Labs and run through what we do intend on testing. If that's still okay with you, of course?"

"Of course," Merry confirmed quickly. "I'm just as interested to learn more about my powers as you are. Consider me your guinea pig!"

"She can be my guinea pig any day," Cisco muttered to Barry with a grin, as the team began retrieving the crates to load up the van again.

Barry gave him a mildly bemused look. "I'm not sure that even makes sense."

As they returned to S.T.A.R. Labs, Merry ran through various theories of what the next stage would be. She knew she'd thrown a wrench into their works with her unique variety of powers, so she was sure that they'd want to explore that more. Blood tests would be a given. Maybe a more thorough medical exam, then likely other ways to better test some of her abilities.

"There are two steps that we'll follow next," Dr. Wells announced, once they were back in the Cortex. "One will be to test your powers more and figure out the limits to each of them. The other will be to see if we can pinpoint what influences the powers that you gained. That'll include blood tests, x-rays, a physical examination... Origin is always key to learning more."

"I thought it was your particle accelerator that influenced them?" said Merry, playing dumb.

"That incident was indeed the catalyst," Dr. Wells agreed. "But from all of the meta humans we've happened across so far, we've been able to establish that their powers have all been circumstantial of the conditions they were in when the particle accelerator failed."

Merry nodded along with interested green eyes, as if this was all new information to her. "So where a meta human was when the particle accelerator blew up affected what kind of powers they got? How exactly?"

"Well, Barry got struck by lightning," Cisco added helpfully. "And now he can, well, move faster than it. And Nimbus, who we have in the Pipeline? He was in a gas chamber to be executed when the particle accelerator blew up."

"Wow..."

"Yet you say that you weren't anywhere unusual when it happened?" Dr. Wells asked. This was what Merry had told them yesterday.

She shook her head. "I was just in a hotel room, watching TV. Nothing special."

"And still you gained powers of your own," Dr. Wells continued deliberately, fixing her with his pointed gaze from behind his glasses. "A very unusual combination of them too, I might add. Your healing and flexibility factors certainly don't correlate to your telekinetic abilities."

Merry shrugged. "Hopefully that's what the blood tests will help explain, right?" she said lightly. There was no way she was ever going to tell them that she knew exactly where each of her varying abilities had originated from. If they knew that she'd purposely made sure that she became a meta human, then they certainly wouldn't trust her.

From the long, careful look Dr. Wells gave her, she knew it'd be a long time before he did anyway. "Right." He eventually looked away. "Caitlin, if you'd like to set things up? There's no time like the present."

"Okay. If you can give me thirty minutes, I can get everything set up for x-rays and a physical exam too," Caitlin suggested.

"Take all the time you need. We're in no rush."

As Caitlin disappeared into the lab to get her medical equipment set up, the others began to disperse too. Cisco returned to the row of computers and Dr. Wells excused himself, pulling Barry aside into one of the smaller adjoining rooms. Merry's gaze followed them interestedly. Each of the rooms were separated by glass, so she could see inside, but she couldn't actually hear what they were saying. With nothing else to do whilst she was waiting, she went to sit down next to Cisco, quickly planning out her next move in her head.

"I seem to have caused quite a stir," she commented as she sank into a chair, turning to see Dr. Wells and Barry still talking animatedly in the next room.

Cisco sat forward in his seat so that he could see past her. "Things are always more interesting when a new meta human shows up. Except in your case, it won't be the kind of interesting that lands you in the Pipeline."

Merry chuckled. "Good to hear. Those cells didn't look particularly comfortable."

"Hey, those are my designs you're talking about."

Merry gave him an amused look. "And are they designed with comfort in mind?"

"Well, no..." Cisco admitted with a sheepish grin. "But since they're being used to house dangerous superhumans, comfort isn't exactly a priority."

"Point," Merry conceded. She slumped back theatrically in her chair. "I suppose I should be genuinely glad that I'm not going in there too. Dr. Wells is clearly suspicious of me."

"Oh, I wouldn't say it's like that," Cisco awkwardly tried to assure her. "It's just we're a close-knit team - not many people really know what we do here. Plus we don't tend to come across many meta humans who aren't hell-bent on killing someone. He's just being cautious."

"I guess so," said Merry, though she didn't sound very certain.

"He's a good man," Cisco promised. "And he's a good judge of character. I wouldn't worry about it."

In that case, Merry was definitely worried, though she obviously wasn't going to admit that. Instead, she used the opportunity to try and wheedle some more information. "You clearly think very highly of him. What do you think went wrong with the particle accelerator? From what I've heard, he's been public enemy number one since then."

Cisco sighed. "People give him such a hard time for it. It really was just an accident. There are some things, even in science, that can't be foreseen. Every calculation was correct - in theory, it should have all gone perfectly, but it just didn't. That can't be changed. Dr. Wells has tried to do what he can for the people of Central City, but they're not willing to give him a second chance. It's no wonder he finds it hard to trust now when people don't trust him."

"Wow. I guess I really shouldn't take it personally then," said Merry, trying her hand at sympathy.

"You shouldn't. I'm sure he's not suspicious of you at all," Cisco promised.

Merry gave him a grateful smile. "So has he got anything new that he's working on since the particle accelerator?" she asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. "Or is he still just trying to repair the damage from that?"

"Well, actually he's been... err... well..." Cisco suddenly trailed off.

From the way he was looking past her, Merry had a feeling that his hesitation wasn't because he didn't know the answer. "He's watching us right now, isn't he?"

"It's like he's staring right into my soul," Cisco agreed, unable to take his eyes away. "You know when you know somebody can't possibly hear you, yet it still feels like they know exactly what you're talking about?

Merry laughed. "Looks like I'm back to being suspected then."

"Oh, no, I still wouldn't say it's that..." Cisco said awkwardly, though he didn't sound so sure this time. "Although it is a little weird being watched."

"Well, maybe we could go somewhere else to talk?" Merry suggested, in a hopeful tone that she'd perfected over the years - one that was innocent, yet still intentionally hinted at more.

Like many other guys she'd turned it on in the past, Cisco caught onto the 'more' part. His attention was now definitely back on her. "Err, you mean just the two of us?"

"Yeah," Merry smiled warmly, keeping her body language open. "I mean, if that's okay with you?"

For a second, it looked like Cisco was just going to sit there with his mouth hanging open, but then he seemed to jump back to his senses. "That's fine! Um, where did you have in mind?"

"Do you drink coffee?"

"I can start."

Merry laughed again and got to her feet. "Then let's go and find somewhere."

Cisco jumped up from his chair so eagerly that he almost knocked it over. "Right!"

Merry was incredibly tempted to look back and see if Dr. Wells was watching, but she still needed to keep her approach innocent. As far as anyone else was concerned, they were just going for coffee whilst they were waiting. How could he stop them from that? But inside, Merry was grinning. She'd barely had to do anything and she already had Cisco wrapped around her little finger. _I'll take away your pawns one by one_, she thought. _Just you wait and see._


	3. Laying Groundwork

"I'll have a skinny macchiato please."

"And what name shall I put on that?"

"Merry."

Merry rolled her eyes to herself as the barista then wrote 'Mary' on the polystyrene cup before ringing the order through the till. "That'll be four ninety-five please."

"I'll get that for you!"

Merry turned towards the very enthusiastic Cisco, who was directly behind her in the line. "Oh, that's okay; you don't have to do that."

"No, no, it's cool," Cisco insisted eagerly. "Why don't you grab a table and I'll bring the drinks over?"

Merry gave him a bemused look. "If you're sure... Then thanks."

It never hurt to put in a little charm with the opposite sex. It could do everything from gaining you better access to information at high-tech laboratories to getting you free coffee. She left Cisco at the counter and purposely surveyed the room, looking for the ideal place to sit. Most of the tables were designed to seat groups of either two or four - the chairs arranged facing each other - but along the back wall were a row of booths with plush vinyl seats and glass dividers separating them. Perfect.

She picked an empty one in the furthest corner and slid herself across to the other side of the seat, leaving room beside her. It was like a basic dating rule that sitting next to someone was a lot cosier than sitting across from them. It made it easier to display more open body language, as well as presenting better opportunities to sneak in some physical contact. Of course, it was probably a little soon to try that, but it was always nice to have the option. Just in case.

Cisco soon joined her with her incorrectly labelled macchiato and what looked like some kind of berry slushie. When he saw that she'd shuffled along to make room for him on her side of the table, he sat down next to her without needing any further encouragement. "Here." He handed her drink over.

"Thanks." Merry smiled warmly at him as she took it. She then raised an eyebrow at Cisco's drink. "What happened to your 'you could start to drink coffee'? That doesn't look like coffee to me."

"I figured I should start small," Cisco declared. "As in no coffee." Merry couldn't help but laugh. He indicated her macchiato. "You look like you have the same problem as me with this kind of place."

Merry eyed her drink suspiciously, wondering what must be wrong with it. "What do you mean?"

Cisco turned his plastic cup around to show the incorrectly spelt 'Sisqo' written across it in black marker. "No spell check."

"Wow. Isn't that Sisqo the guy who sang The Thong Song?"

"Yup. I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing." Merry just laughed again before taking a sip from her drink. Cisco still seemed eager to keep the conversation going. "So is Merry short for anything or are we talking like Merry Clayton?"

"No, it's short for Marianne," Merry replied, amused. "Not Meriadoc, if that's what you were thinking."

Cisco had to take a few seconds to respond this time. "You actually made that reference," he said, impressed.

Merry grinned. She'd been sure the geeky reference would land well. She congratulated herself on the Lord of the Rings knowledge she remembered from English Lit in year seven. "Well, where I come from is actually full of hills. Perfect Shire-like location."

Cisco was definitely impressed. He'd raised the plastic cup to his mouth, but had stopped with the straw hovering an inch away from his lips. He seemed to have forgotten about it. "So where exactly are you from? I mean, I can tell you're British, but your accent's still a little..."

"Weird?" Merry giggled, trying to ignore the sound she'd just feigned. She'd never had much time for girls who giggled, but apparently most guys found it appealing. She had no idea why. "I'm from Wales. From what I've experienced, most Americans can tell English accents and usually Irish and Scottish too. But you guys don't seem to get us Welsh very much."

Cisco grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry, you're right there. The only Welsh person I know of is Christian Bale and he doesn't even have much of an accent."

"BBC America. Gavin and Stacey," Merry recommended. "Or it could even be on Netflix."

"Now you're speaking my language."

Merry took another drink before trying to bring the conversation back round to what she wanted to find out. "So you were saying about Dr. Wells and the particle accelerator before... What's everyone up to at S.T.A.R. Labs now after that?"

"Well, we obviously have Barry to work with and we're always on the lookout for more meta humans. Mostly, Dr. Wells just concentrates on trying to help Barry find out more about his speed," Cisco explained. He seemed to finally remember the cup he was still holding to his mouth and drew a long swig through the straw. "But what about this meta human who can turn invisible? Barry said someone's been after you?"

Merry bit back a frown at the change of subject. Was that really all that Dr. Wells had been up to? It wasn't exactly a lot to work with. She wanted to ask more about it, but she knew that it would begin to look suspicious if she kept trying to bring the conversation back to the same topic. Cisco seemed far more interested in knowing about other subjects, so for now, she'd just have to go with it if she wanted to keep him clueless. She was sure she'd have plenty of time to drill him later on.

"His name's Bernie Lowman. He's a thief, to put it simply," she explained, recalling the story that she and Matt had revised over and over. "We ran into him in DC a while back when he was robbing a store. Once he found out that I had powers too, he wanted me to join him. He was so blinded by the idea that he didn't even realise I was actually trying to stop him, not help him. He's been harassing me ever since - he's a psycho. It makes it kinda tough to hide from someone you can't see."

"Wow..." Cisco seemed very interested in the idea. His straw had trailed away from his open mouth again. "So how does it work? I mean, I'm guessing he's not invisible all the time or you wouldn't have been able to see him in the first place."

"I don't really know," Merry confessed. The less facts she had to remember, the better. "I've seen him normally and I've seen him use his power - it's like he just evaporates on the spot. But I don't know how long he can stay invisible for or anything like that."

"So no strengths or weaknesses that you know of?"

Merry shook her head. "Nope, sorry. I spend more time trying to get away from him than I have done talking to him."

Cisco looked thoughtful. "I reckon I could probably come up with some kind of booby trap that would give him away if he tried to come near you again..."

"Err, you could really do something like that?" Merry asked, surprised. She tried to control her expression. She didn't like the sound of that. That wasn't part of the plan.

Cisco grinned and tapped the side of his head. "I'm sure I can pull something out of here. If I can find something that works, then at least it'll give you one less problem to worry about."

"Oh, I wouldn't wanna put you to any trouble or anything..." Merry tried to hedge. How easily would the young engineer be able to find out that her story of an invisible meta human was nothing but fiction? For once, she regretted that Cisco was so eager to please.

And of course, he was still persistent as ever. "No trouble at all," he insisted cheerfully.

Oh, great, Merry thought grumpily to herself. Why had she had to go for a nice guy to fool? That always made her feel guilty. She didn't like that. Though on the surface, she smiled sweetly and said as genuinely as she could manage, "Thank you. That's really nice of you."

Cisco actually flushed a little. He mumbled something that sounded vaguely like "No problem", then hastily took another swig of his drink to try and look casual and promptly choked on it.

Merry politely pretended that she hadn't noticed anything. "So how long have you been working with Dr. Wells? You said you were there when the particle accelerator blew up, right?"

"Yeah, I was at S.T.A.R. Labs for about sixteen months before that. I've been here for a couple of years now," said Cisco, who had managed to compose himself and was now equally acting like nothing had happened. "But what about you; how long have you been in Central City for?"

Merry felt another pang of irritation, which she quickly tried to quash before it showed on her face. Every time she asked something about Dr. Wells, Cisco would flip the conversation round. The worst part was that she didn't think he was purposely avoiding the subject - he just seemed to be treating this like they were on an actual date. Nearly every question he'd asked her had been about herself. Her name, where she was from, how long she'd been in town... She should have known she'd need to play along more before she could pry any useful information from him. Oh well. She could keep humouring him for now at least.

"I've been back and forth quite a bit. As you know, I was here when the particle accelerator blew," she said, for once telling the truth. She turned towards him more in her seat as she spoke. Keeping your body language open was one of the best ways to show a guy you were interested. Everybody knew that. "We've branched in and out of the city a lot recently, but we stuck around for the last couple of months. We generally go wherever Matt's work takes us. Crime's been lower than usual in Central City for a while - again, something I'm sure you're familiar with - but he's still been getting plenty of bounties here under the radar."

Cisco nodded along interestedly. "What's it like getting to work with a bounty hunter?"

"Pretty awesome," Merry admitted with a smile. "What about you? What's it like getting to work with a real-life superhero?"

"Pretty awesome," Cisco mimicked with a grin. "And technically, you could be a real superhero too. I mean, you have powers as well. You could work with us if you wanted to."

Merry made sure she seemed awed by the idea. It actually wasn't too difficult - 'superhero' did have a pretty cool ring to it. "You really think I could?"

"Of course!" Cisco exclaimed eagerly. "Once you learn more about your powers, I don't see why you couldn't do what Barry does. We already know you're not bad or anything. It'd be seriously dope to have another meta human on the team."

Wow, he really was easily swayed. What she was doing almost felt a little unfair. But of course, Merry had something far bigger at stake than a guilty conscience, so she grinned back. "Then count me in. I'd love to help out. And maybe you could make me a suit too,"

Cisco's drink tipped so far that it was almost in danger of spilling out of the little hole in the lid of the plastic cup. "I would _love_ to do that."

Merry laughed. "Just as long as you don't give me anything pink and frilly, then I officially grant you free reign."

"Please. Have you _seen_ how badass Barry's suit is?" Cisco pointed out sardonically. "I only deal in awesome. Though in your case, I'll have to make sure it's extra hot too-" He then stopped abruptly as if he hadn't quite meant to actually say that last part. "Err, I mean..."

But Merry was happy to play along. "Then I'll hold you to that," she said with a wink.

For once, Cisco was completely flummoxed and had no idea what to say to that. Fortunately for him, he was saved from his deer in the headlights look by his cell phone ringing. He pulled it from the pocket of his hooded jacket and looked at the screen in dismay. He had three text messages that he hadn't even heard - all from Caitlin. Who was also the one now ringing him.

"Hey, Caitlin..." he answered sheepishly. "Sorry, we just went to grab some coffee. Well, no, I had a slushie of course. No, I didn't hear my phone... Yeah, we'll come back to S.T.A.R. Labs straightaway. Do you guys want anything to-go? ...Okay, okay! We're coming straight back."

Merry gave him a sympathetic look as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket. "Sorry... I got you into trouble."

"It's cool," Cisco assured, getting to his feet. "Don't worry about it."

Merry followed suit and quickly swigged back the last of her macchiato. Cisco's slushie was still nearly full, if a little melted. "Well, if it's any consolation, I feel much better now," she smiled. "So thanks. This was nice."

"Any time," said Cisco eagerly. "Like really... _Any_ time."

Cisco took the remainder of his drink to-go and they headed back to S.T.A.R. Labs. Though Barry seemed amused when he spotted them, the same couldn't be said for the others. Caitlin looked impatient, eager to get on with the tests, and Dr. Wells appeared to be mildly annoyed. He clearly hadn't approved of the impromptu coffee run. It was childish, but Merry couldn't help feeling a little smug about that.

"We were wondering where you two had got to," he said pointedly when they arrived.

"We just thought we'd get some coffee whilst we were waiting..." Cisco began, immediately taking the heat for their absence.

"Caitlin stipulated that she'd need thirty minutes to get set up. You've been gone for over an hour," Dr. Wells pointed out, a strong hint of disapproval colouring his tone.

Cisco looked suitably abashed, so Merry chose that moment to swiftly cut in. "I'm sorry; it was my fault," she confessed, shouldering the blame herself. She knew that Dr. Wells would have no right to be annoyed at her. Not to mention it would probably place her even higher in Cisco's good books. From the admiring look she caught from a quick sideways glance at him, she had a feeling it had worked. "It was my idea to go - I just didn't really feel like going alone. Then I guess I got a little carried away yappering on about myself... Sorry about that."

An expression that Merry couldn't read briefly crossed Dr. Wells' face, but then it smoothed back into his usual pleasant mask. "No harm done, I suppose. Though maybe next time, you should order to-go, to save Caitlin from having to wait around for you."

Merry nodded and humbly repeated her apology to Caitlin, who seemed much more mollified by it. "Don't worry about it," she assured. "I have everything set up now if you want to follow me? I wanted to do an MRI scan, some general x-rays, blood tests and a full physical."

"That's fine with me," said Merry. Her brain was suddenly whirring again at the mention of the MRI, as she tried to remember what bra she was wearing. She was sure it was one of her more decent ones. Wasn't she wearing the complete set she bought herself last Christmas?

Caitlin led her through to one of the smaller rooms, the boys following curiously. Dr. Wells remained in the Cortex, however. "I figured we'd start with the MRI scan first whilst the machine's ready," Caitlin decided. She then looked mildly apologetic. "Though I'm afraid I'm gonna need you to strip down for it."

"No problem," said Merry, unfazed.

"I do have a gown ready and there's a screen over there that you can..."

Caitlin trailed off in astonishment as Merry simply pulled her top up over her head on command in front of everyone, revealing an expanse of smooth pale skin and a sky blue lacy bra. Barry suddenly started stammering and didn't seem sure of where to look, whereas Cisco's mouth dropped open comically as he stared at the suddenly semi-naked girl in front of him.

Caitlin quickly forced a hand over his eyes and kicked him in the shin. "Out! Get out, both of you!"

Barry didn't need telling twice. He hastily helped to push a dazed Cisco out of the room. Caitlin shut the door behind them and pulled the shutters down. Merry put on a show of looking uncertain. "Err, I'm sorry... Was that weird of me?"

"A little," Caitlin admitted, not wanting to offend her. "I was going to say you can use that screen over there to get changed behind to give you some privacy."

"Oh... I guess I didn't think about it," said Merry innocently, though of course, she'd definitely thought about it. "I was on a mixed volleyball team back home and we had co-ed changing rooms, so I'm just used to it."

"Maybe for some people that's not so unusual. But these guys are more the kind you could give an embolism to doing something like that," Caitlin pointed out lightly.

So she did have a sense of humour after all. Merry hadn't seen much else other than a professional air from her so far. She laughed. "Okay, I'll remember that."

After the MRI scan, Caitlin set up some x-rays. She told Merry that the results would take a few hours and explained that none of Barry's x-rays had ever shown anything unusual, but it was still worth checking into. Like most meta humans, Merry's abilities didn't show on the outside, so although the physical exam showed that she was healthy and in good shape, it didn't really reveal anything too unusual.

"Your healing factor definitely doesn't seem to be like Barry's," Caitlin described as Merry got back into her own clothes. "It's like his muscles are always in a constant state of cellular regeneration, whereas yours appear normal. It must be something to do with the difference in the speed of your healing..."

Merry had quickly learnt that Caitlin liked to talk her way through her analysis and that she wasn't actually required to answer or voice any of her own thoughts. So she let Caitlin discuss her theories with herself and dressed quietly in the corner. She hid a smile as she pulled her shirt back on. She was sure that particular trick had gone down a treat with Cisco. Maybe once she'd successfully won him over onto her side, she could try working on Caitlin next. Suggest fitting in some girl time with her.

Blood tests came after the physical. Caitlin took a couple of vials worth of blood from the crook of Merry's arm, which she then stored away in a metal case with a large clasp on it, explaining to Merry that they were the results she was expecting to learn the most from. In turn, Merry felt a little more anxious about those. There was a chance that there could still be something lingering in her blood that she didn't want anyone else to know about. She had an excuse ready on back-up if that part of the plan did happen to go wrong, but it would still be preferable if she could keep it under wraps for longer, if not entirely.

"And you're free to go," said Caitlin, leading her back out into the Cortex. Merry had happily gone along with each of her exams without protest. "You make a very patient... well, patient."

Merry just smiled. "All in the interest of learning, right? I can hardly kick up a fuss about needles when it's for my own benefit."

"You'd be surprised. I know a scientist who doesn't like needles no matter who it benefits," Caitlin said pointedly.

"Hey, nobody _likes_ needles," Cisco protested from behind one of the computers, not looking up, but certainly not missing who the comment was directed at.

"You're scared of needles?" Merry asked amusedly, a teasing edge entering her tone. Banter was one of the highest levels of flirtation after all.

"Everyone's allowed one irrational fear," Cisco declared.

"I thought yours was bees?" Barry cut in helpfully.

"Everyone's allowed two irrational fears," Cisco amended.

Merry laughed. "Well, if any pesky bees get in here, I promise I'll blast them for you," she grinned, holding up her hand and making a show of using her power to push a pot of pens from one end of the table to the other. Cisco approvingly matched her grin with his own.

Dr. Wells rolled back into the Cortex in his wheelchair from one of the adjoining rooms amidst the banter. His gaze flickered between Merry and Caitlin interestedly. "Well? Anything?"

"I'm hoping to get more information from the results of the blood tests and x-rays," Caitlin explained. "Until then, all I've really been able to establish is that Merry has particularly good reflexes and, as she told us herself, an unusually high level of flexibility."

"Which I, for one, would still very much like to see," Cisco interrupted, definitely distracted from the computer this time.

Caitlin rolled her eyes, but Merry was definitely willing to be cooperative. "I'm happy to demonstrate." She looked around the room for inspiration. There was an air vent in the corner, but she wasn't sure if it would really do the trick. For one thing, if was fairly wide - your average skinny person could fit through it. For another, they wouldn't really be able to watch her in action once she was in there. "Hmmm. You've got an air vent there, but that looks like it'd be too easy... Don't suppose you've got any rooms protected by laser beams?" she joked.

"If only," said Cisco wistfully.

"We do have the boiler room," Dr. Wells suggested thoughtfully, surprising Merry with his input. "There's a lot of pipes running through it, so it'd be difficult for any average person to navigate."

"Some of those pipes can get pretty hot though," Caitlin pointed out, concerned.

"But if she's as flexible as she says she is..." Dr. Wells fixed his gaze on Merry carefully, something almost daring in his tone. "Though it's your choice, of course, Miss Myrrh."

Merry stared back, trying not to seem defiant about it. "There's only one way to find out, I guess." She looked down at herself as an afterthought, plucking at her light t-shirt. "Though I might need to try it when I'm dressed more appropriately... Looser clothes like this tend to snag," she said reluctantly.

"You could always do it in your underwear," Cisco suggested, seemingly without thinking.

"Cisco!" Caitlin chastised him, mortified.

"Hey, it was just a suggestion," Cisco added hastily, though even he seemed surprised that he'd voiced his idea out loud.

Merry didn't try to hide her amusement. Instead, she used it to flash him a roguish smile. "I would, but underwear can still snag too and I'm quite fond of the set I'm wearing."

Cisco's face coloured slightly under his dark skin. He managed to say something in a strangled voice that could have been, "We wouldn't want that." Or maybe it was 'we _would_ want that'. Merry couldn't be sure. But then Cisco suddenly seemed to have a brainwave, eliminating all traces of his embarrassment. "Oh! Wait just a _second_. I have an idea!"

"What?" Though Cisco had already leapt up out of his chair and ran from the Cortex.

"If he's gone to fetch you my suit, then I'm not really sure it's gonna fit you so well," Barry joked. Merry was quite a bit shorter than he was and she definitely had curves that he'd never have genetically.

Merry laughed. "That's a shame. I've always felt red quite suits me."

When Cisco ran back, he _was_ carrying a suit, but it wasn't Barry's. It was a navy so dark that it was almost black and it stretched from the neck down to every finger and every toe. It reminded Merry of a mix between an adult sized baby-grow - though a much more skin tight one - and a wet suit, except the material was all wrong. It didn't look rubbery in the slightest. "What is it?" she asked, as Cisco all but pushed it into her hands.

"Prototype wet suit," he said excitedly. So she'd been on the right line after all. "It's made of a special type of form-fitting fabric, similar to Barry's suit. It's waterproof, but it runs on its own thermals. It won't be affected by any outside temperatures - hot or cold." He then grinned. "So hot pipes won't be a problem."

"Handy," Merry whistled, once again impressed by how deceptively smart the naive young engineer was.

"Why would you make a wet suit?" Caitlin frowned. "Are you planning any diving expeditions?"

Cisco just shrugged. "If I was gonna make a fireproof suit, then I had to make a waterproof one too."

Caitlin rolled her eyes again. "Of course you did."

"Forget the why," said Cisco impatiently, his eyes back on Merry. "I wanna see this baby in action!" Nobody was sure if, by that, he meant the suit or Merry herself.

"Err, but use the screen this time," Caitlin prompted Merry hastily, probably concerned that she was going to start stripping off again in the middle of the Cortex.

Merry smiled sheepishly. "Sure thing."

As she turned towards the room where Caitlin had done her medical exams, she heard Cisco mutter something that sounded distinctly like, "Spoilsport."

Merry's smile widened. The plan was definitely working.


End file.
